Reading scores on the rise at Iqaluit high school
“This is really good news”
The language arts morning program at Inuksuk High School is being credited for a recent boost in students’ literacy scores. (File photo)
Students at Iqaluit’s Inuksuk High School are making “great progress” in reading scores, according to the school’s principal.
“We are seeing substantial, substantial increase in our students’ scores,” principal Jay Thomas told the Iqaluit District Education Authority on Jan. 28, as he presented his monthly report for December.
According to a chart provided by Thomas, last spring just over 25 ninth-grade students had a Z-level reading score (an equivalent of Alberta’s Grade 8). Seven had a Z+.
By the fall of 2018, 36 had a Z and 29 had a Z+.
Then by December, those numbers grew to 47 and 42 respectively.
“We are seeing a lot of success, and I think that successes like this often fly under the radar because they don’t get enough notice as a lunch program or whatnot, but this really is good news—not just for Inuksuk High School, but for the other schools too,” Thomas said.
“This is showing that what people are doing in terms of literacy and reading is working.”
Jennie Dawson, a learning coach at the high school, attributes this success to a language arts morning program delivered at the same time every day to all Grade 9 students.
The students work in small groups on five aspects of literacy. Thomas calls this “balanced literacy.”
It is part of a Department of Education program released a few years ago.
They have seen it push the students to a higher reading comprehension level by make reading activities more popular and more routine.
Dawson conducts reading tests with the students, and when there are low scores, she does intervention work with them to target their specific needs.
“This is a real academic success, not just at Inuksuk but at all the schools,” said Thomas.
“A tool the Department of Education invested in is having results for students.”
First of all how many grade 9 students are there in Inuksuk high school?
25 grade 9 students last spring would not be the same grade 9 students this year. It reads as if these are the same students progressing in a year, yet given that the academic year runs from early September to mid-late June, these are likely different students all together.
By fall 2018 there were 36 students who had a Z and 29 had a Z+ and by December these numbers grew to 47 and 42 respectively. That is good progress but are these all the grade 9 students or are there more than 89 in total?
MZ is right.
Tell the whole story. Provide context, such as how many students were in grade 9 last year, how many were assessed at each reading level in September, how many at each reading level in December and how many at each reading level in May.
Then tell us how this year’s grade 9 students are doing. Presumably they’ve had an additional year of Balanced Literacy, so I would expect that this year’s grade nine students would be more advanced, on average, than last year’s grade nine students.
Good news is welcome.
But I am tired of this selective reporting of good news. It only serves to ask the question, “What are they not telling us, and why?”
I am confused and wonder as others if I am interpreting the literacy results correctly.
They tested Grade 9s. In the start, most (78%) had a Z or Grade 8 reading level in the beginning = behind in reading.
Presumably Z+ then is a Grade 9 reading level?
If this is correct, then it is hardly a reason to celebrate that over the span of what appears to be an academic year, using enhanced literacy efforts, they have only achieved close to 50% grade appropriate reading levels.
That would only point to the school system failing less often, and still not achieving the desired result more than half the time.
That is not “alot” of success. It is not a “real academic” success. It should not even be considered “working”. Even a placebo in medical trails is 50% more effective than nothing.
For the 47 Grade 9 students (the majority) tested in the spring that still had a Grade 8 reading level, how on earth are they going to tackle Grade 10 after their summer break?
Educators should be sticking to a more traditional message – Needs Improvement.
The way the stats are presented is confusing. It would have made more sense to show the levels of the incoming grade 9 group and then show how much progress that specific group had made 6 months later using the Balanced Literacy strategy. The strategy of “Balanced Literacy” is being used all over Nunavut (and North America for that matter) or at least it is supposed to be used. It is also being used for Inuktut. It follows the strategies of “The Daily Five” (Boushey & Moser), Flexible Groupings (Students are placed in groups with students of the same reading level) so they don’t get left behind in homogenous groups where students are working at many different levels but all being taught as if they were at one grade level) and the levels of the students are tested by the Learning coaches using Benchmarking (Pearson) and Running Records(Developed by the Department) for Inuktut twice a year. The Balanced Literacy initiative was implemented 5 years ago by Paul Quassa when he was the Minister of Education. There is also a Math initiative called the Daily 3 for Math which hopefully the Department will implement soon to address the dismal state of Math in the territory. These are very useful and effective initiatives which everyone should embrace and encourage. When used properly and consistently that produce results. They are not really anything new. They are however, good teaching practice.
Good, now they can read Sandra’s 22 point essay for non-Inuit.
Posted by Concerned citizen:
At Iqaluit District Education Authority meeting on Jan. 28, Inuksuk High School presented it monthly report for December on making “great progress” in reading scores
After reading all the posts there is a few questions that the Iqaluit District Education Authority needs to ask.
The program was implemented 5 years ago by Paul Quassa and there is only one four month report that has came out about reading levels.
Where are the reports from the other schools?
What are the reading levels of the other schools in Iqaluit?
Is the (Balance Literacy Program) being run at the other schools?
High School being credited for a recent boost in students’ literacy scores.
It’s great that students’ literacy levels are improving. A balanced literacy approach will work if consistently used properly.
Reality Hunter is correct.
The Balanced Literacy approach will work if consistently used properly. So will many other approaches.
Let me tell you the truth about what happened to Balanced Literacy.
The Department of Education spent many millions of dollars to buy tens of thousands of books. Then they realized that the books alone would not do the job. So they hired a specialist in remedial reading to help students progress to their appropriate grade level.
That reading specialist moved to Iqaluit with his son. The teacher taught at Joamie School and the son was enrolled at the Middle School. The son was the the target of continuous bullying from the day he set foot in that school. After a few weeks the son was sent back down south. The father stayed in Iqaluit and achieved remarkable results during the first term. Then he resigned and went south to be with his son.
So much for Balanced Literacy.
All schools in Nunavut got the books, Literacy coaches and training in balanced literacy, the daily five, Levelled Literacy Intervention etc not just Joamie school. This initiative was kicked off by Quassa and was one of the best things to come out of the department in years. The current minister seems to be sleeping and is certainly way out of his league.